


Bad Moon Rising

by victoria_p (musesfool)



Category: Batman (Comics), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, West Wing Title Project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23895283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musesfool/pseuds/victoria_p
Summary: "And what are you supposed to be?" Ahsoka asks."Robin," he tells her proudly, tapping the badge on his chest. "I help protect this city."
Comments: 10
Kudos: 135





	Bad Moon Rising

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the West Wing title project. Thanks so much to Lembeau for looking it over.

**i.**

Ahsoka needs to rest soon. She can go longer without sleep than a lot of beings—the combination of being a Jedi and a Togruta gives her some physical advantages—but she's only one person and there are many, many people chasing her. And she of all people knows how competent the clone troopers are when they're given a mission.

She heads down further into Coruscant's lower levels, confident that even if the news about her has penetrated this far down, most people won't want to get involved. Most people won't even look at her face beneath the hood she's drawn up over her montrals. Anyone who does is a threat, but nothing she can't handle. Probably.

She'd once compared Coruscant to the galaxy—the lower levels, like the Outer Rim, are run by gangs and populated mostly by people just trying to get by, while the upper levels and the Core ignore them in favor of their own interests. Anakin had nodded and commended her on her insight, though his jaw was tight and his eyes were hard; Master Kenobi had just looked pained.

She discovers the hard way that she's righter than she knew—there's crime on every corner and the Coruscant Security Force is nowhere to be seen. She's torn between the impulse to get involved—she's a Jedi, she could help—and the need to keep her head down and lie low.

She restrains herself until she sees a Twi'lek child struggling in the hold of a pair of adults. "Help! Help me!" the girl yells, and people hurry around them, heads down, eyes averted. No one stops to help.

Ahsoka moves in with confidence, and knocks out the two thugs holding the girl. "Are you okay?" she asks.

"I'm okay!" The little girl looks up at her with wide, adoring eyes. "That was amazing! Look out behind you!"

The Force hums a warning, as well, but then the third attacker is knocked out by a boy in a yellow cape doing some sort of complicated flip-kick that reminds her of Anakin. He moves gracefully enough that she wonders if he's also a padawan on the loose, but if that were the case, he'd have recognized her and luckily, he shows no sign of that. He busies himself for a few moments tying the thugs' hands together. He's quick and confident, as if he's done it many times before. Then he straightens up and puts his hands on hips, puffing out his chest. "Are you okay, ma'am?"

"Yes, thank you," Ahsoka responds, still surprised and oddly charmed. He's young, but then, so is she, and it's so hard to tell sometimes with humans, especially since this one is wearing a mask over his eyes.

"Robin!" the little girl says. "You _are_ real!"

"I am!" Robin replies, grinning brightly. His grin dims a little when he turns to Ahsoka, and she can feel his skepticism through the Force. "We don't see many Jedi down here."

"A Jedi!" the little girl squeaks, lekku twitching in excitement. "This is the best day ever!"

"And what are you supposed to be?" Ahsoka asks, her mouth quirking in a wry half-grin. 

"Robin," he tells her proudly, tapping the badge on his chest. "I help protect this city."

"Well, little bird, I thank you, but I don't need your help." 

Before he can respond, Ahsoka feels another presence prickling against her awareness, and then a large being in a mask and cape appears from the shadows above. 

"Robin." The voice is male, adult, used to being obeyed. Humanoid, or possibly human, depending on whether those pointy ears are real or just part of the mask.

Robin straightens his shoulders even further. "Yeah, B?"

"When you're done here, meet me on level 1341. The Maronis are making their move."

"Will do."

B disappears back into the shadows as if he'd never been there at all, and Ahsoka is impressed; if she couldn't still feel the bright spark of his presence in the Force, it would look like he'd simply become a shadow himself.

And then she feels a group of more familiar presences, all searching for her.

She manages a small smile for Robin and the girl. "You'll see her home safe?"

"That's what I do," he replies. He lifts the little girl up and sets her on his hip. He doesn't look big enough to carry her for long, but he doesn't seem to be straining at all.

"Then I'll be on my way."

"Are you okay?" he asks as she's turning to go.

Her small smile turns into more of a grimace. "No, but I will be." He nods and she nods in return. "May the Force be with you."

She takes off before he can respond, but as she's running she can hear the little girl say, "Was she really a Jedi?"

"Yeah," Robin says. "I think so."

⁂

**ii.**

Ahsoka leans back in the pilot's seat of her ship and pinches the bridge of her nose, glad that the comm is audio-only so no one can see her.

"Where did this intel come from?" she asks, no sign of her exhaustion or headache in her voice, though even there were, the vocoder she's using would filter it out, make her sound flat and unremarkable, like a droid reset to factory standard. 

"Coruscant itself," her source replies. "Gotham, actually. There's been a power vacuum on the lower levels since the Falcone crime family was toppled late last year—they took over from the Maronis after they all went to prison—and we think there's potential to slip an agent into one of the warring syndicates."

"Gotham," she mutters, trying to place it on her mental map of the city-planet.

"Levels 1306 through 1348," her source supplies helpfully. "Near the Works."

"And who is this agent?"

"He's a freelancer, calls himself Nightwing."

Ahsoka barely refrains from rolling her eyes, not that her contact could see it if she did. "A little grandiose for a criminal." A Kryptonian myth, if she recalls correctly. They'd been an insular people on a wealthy planet somewhere out past Dosuun on the Outer Rim. Krypton hadn't been part of the Republic, but when the planet had been destroyed by a cataclysm a few years before Ahsoka was born, the Republic had sent aid to the surviving communities on other worlds. Maybe Nightwing was a member of that diaspora. Many people are members of some decimated group or another these days. 

"Nightwing's not a criminal," her source replies, sounding scandalized even through their own voice modulator. Ahsoka tries not to be too curious about some of her contacts, but this one, from Central City on the planet Keystone, is making her wonder. "No more than you or I, anyway. He works with Batman and Robin. Some people say he was the first Robin."

"Robin," Ahsoka says, sitting up straight as the memory of a small boy with a cape flashes in her mind. "Huh. Having a source on Coruscant would be useful." 

"That's what I said."

"I'm transmitting an encrypted comm code," Ahsoka continues, ignoring the interjection. "Have Nightwing get in touch."

"Roger that."

"Fulcrum out."

Ahsoka cuts the connection and leans back again. Since the fall of the Republic, unfiltered news from the lower levels of Coruscant has been scarce; the people in the Undercity are just trying to get by, ignored or forgotten by those in power. That's no different despite Palpatine's change in title. Having a source the people there trust would come in handy, and Ahsoka's always taken allies wherever she can find them.

⁂

**iii.**

Nightwing is a solid, if not voluble, source of intel on the criminal underbelly of Coruscant, and the various gang wars that flare up in the lower levels, which sometimes radiate out into the galaxy at large, since all the syndicates have a presence there. 

Ahsoka never expects to actually meet him—she won't be able to go back to Coruscant until the Empire is overthrown, and from what little she's learned about the Batman and his network of vigilantes, they rarely leave Coruscant.

So it's a surprise when she runs into him in a secret tunnel beneath the royal palace on Tamaran. She doesn't know him at first—it's been a few years, and they never make visual contact—but she does recognize the stylized blue bird on his chest.

"Nightwing!"

She can't see his eyes because he's wearing a mask over them, but his forehead crinkles in a frown. "Do I know you?" She lowers the hood of her cloak, and his mouth opens in surprise. "You're that Jedi, from level 1313."

She bites back the automatic denial that she's a Jedi and instead says, "You can call me Fulcrum."

"Nice to see you again. You're part of the delegation from Alderaan?"

Ahsoka's mouth twists in a rueful half-grin. "Unofficially. You?"

"I'm a friend of Princess Koriand'r's." He returns the grin. "Also unofficially."

Ahsoka blinks in surprise. Koriand'r is the Tamaranean princess who was sold into slavery by her parents to seal a peace treaty with Tamaran's enemies, and ensure that her sister Komand'r would become queen. The decision did bring peace for a while, but Tamaran, much like Mandalore, its neighbor two systems over, has never had long-lasting peace and, also much like Mandalore, their culture places a lot of store on fighting prowess and honor. The Tamaraneans are on the brink of civil war now, with Koriand'r's return at the head of a faction who wish to fight the Empire. Queen Komand'r has lost face for having settled peaceably with them, and is in danger of losing her head from her own people, if not from the Empire if she can't put this revolt down. Alderaan has sent a delegation to mediate between the two sisters, while Ahsoka is in the background, sounding out Koriand'r's advisors about joining the Alliance.

"Well," she finally says, grin widening to show her teeth, "this could get interesting."

Nightwing's equally sharp smile in return tells her she's right.

⁂


End file.
